Future Pop
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Future Pop
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| Development phase: | Mid / late 1990s |
| Place of origin: | Western Europe |
| Stylistic precursors | |
| Electro · Electro Pop · Techno · Trance | |
| Instruments typical of the genre | |
| Synthesizer · Sampler · Sequencer · E-Drum · Music software | |
Future Pop , also spelled Futurepop , is a style of electronic dance music that emerged in the late 1990s with clear, danceable song structures in 4/4 time. It is classified differently and characterized on the one hand as a mixture of EBM , techno and synth pop , on the other hand referred to as chart-compatible dance techno of the black scene . Future Pop shows flowing transitions to electro and other neighboring music styles. The term Future Pop prevailed after the turn of the millennium. The main representatives of the style are or were the projects Apoptygma Berzerk , VNV Nation , Rotersand and Covenant , originating from the electro scene .
Origin of name
Within the context of pop music, the term Future Pop first appeared in the book Future Pop: Music for the Eighties by the author Peter L. Noble , published in September 1983, and was used 15 years later for a novel by MG Burgheim (book review also in Zillo , issue 11/1999). However, Ronan Harris , singer from VNV Nation , also claims to have coined the name. After the turn of the millennium, it was increasingly used for the protagonists of the style, such as the Icon of Coil . At the same time, the first compilations appeared on the German labels Angelstar ( Future Pop: The Best of Modern Electronic , 2001) and Zoomshot Media Entertainment ( Future Pop Generation , 2002).
features
Future Pop is an electronic music style without the use of guitars, in which techno- like track structures and consistent rhythms around 140 BPM predominate. Harmonic structures, catchy melodies and instrumentation with virtual-analog synthesizers are common . Popular models are the Access Virus and the Roland JP8000 . The latter is famous for introducing the SuperSaw waveform, which is also popular in techno and trance . In contrast to other technoid genres like Hellektro , the music is much more melodic and pop-oriented. In some cases, clear parallels to dance are seen:
“Strictly speaking, there are no compelling differences to chart-compatible dance techno, except that the protagonists assigned the term 'Future Pop' can be found within the black scene and the basic mood of the pieces seems a bit darker than in usual techno releases . [...] 'Party' is an important aspect here. "
history
The first attempts at overlay were made in the early and mid-1990s. Among other things, the electro-pop project Camouflage, which had shrunk to a duo, picked up techno and trance elements and had some success with Maxi Suspicious Love (1993). The electro-wave formation Fortification 55 released their fourth album Trancemigration in 1995 , on which there were similar experiments. The album flopped, however, because there was no suitable target audience at the time. Similar developments can also be seen in other German groups, such as Boytronic ( Blue Velvet , 1995), Delay ( Soul Cremation , 1995), Distain! ( Remote Control , 1996) or Rame ( Space's Embrace , 1996).
At the same time, the Maxi Non-Stop Violence (1995) and the album 7 (1996) by Apoptygma Berzerk appeared , on which some changes compared to the previous releases of the band were noticeable. Both Non-Stop Violence and the pieces Deep Red and Love Never Dies already have technoid basic structures. The Maxi Eclipse came onto the market three years later . Eclipse is one of the first future pop pieces. At the same time, the Irish / British project VNV Nation released the album Empires (1999), from which the songs Rubicon and Standing in particular steer into the same environment.
Success was not long in coming. The Swedish project Covenant was able to book a deal with Sony Music Entertainment , and Apoptygma Berzerk made it into the media control charts together with VNV Nation . All three bands were previously active in the electro and electro pop area, but due to their increasing turn to trance, they are considered to be a style-defining factor for future pop.
reception
Future Pop is in Germany mainly within the so-called black scene belongs. Due to the strong orientation towards commercial dance and pop music and the numerous bands who mostly reflected the influences of their pioneers without reflecting, Future Pop is particularly controversial among older fans of the scene.
“The term 'Futurepop' has a negative connotation with many fans of black electronic music: Also often referred to as 'Weiberelectro' (or was that something else again?), The word often stands for unimaginative, softened, technoid-pop dance music for black-clad disco girlies. "
As early as the late 1990s, the increased emergence of the genre triggered conflicts within the scene , so that traditional Goths in particular turned away from the traditional scene parties and organized gothic-rock , dark-wave and death-rock- specific events:
“There are now real» anti-future pop «events. If that is already on the flyer, that is a sign that people are slowly getting enough of it. "
In other countries such as the United States , on the other hand, the audience is heterogeneous and mainly based in the alternative environment.
Weiberelectro ™
In the course of the 1990s, various electronic projects increasingly began to integrate pop and dance elements into their music. Performers such as Evils Toy and Funker Vogt increasingly attracted female clubbers to the dance floor. In the course of this there was also an overlap with the future pop trend that was emerging at the same time.
When the former organizer and music journalist Niels Fischborn noticed through his DJ activities and dance floor analyzes what influence music had on the gender-specific composition, he created the expression Weiberelectro ™ as a humorous collective term for easily consumable electronic productions. Fischborn started a satirical website of the same name in 2000/2001 to “sketch the connections between the female hormone estrogen and contemporary electronic music” and organized several themed parties, including the Bochum incident .
Important representatives
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Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Peter Matzke, Tobias Seeliger: The Gothic and Dark Wave Lexicon. Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89602-522-8 , p. 230.
- ↑ Axel Schmidt, Klaus Neumann-Braun: Die Welt der Gothics. Scope of dark connotations of transcendence. 2004, ISBN 3-531-14353-0 . P .273
- ↑ Alexander Nym (Ed.): Shimmering Dark . 1st edition, Plöttner 2010, p. 160
- ^ Peter L. Noble: Future Pop. Music for the Eighties. Putnam Pub Group, New York 1983, ISBN 0-933328-70-2 .
- ^ MG Burgheim: Future Pop. Eichborn Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-8218-0679-6 . (Blurb)
- ↑ Being a little bit productive. Interview with Ronan Harris on: sortedmagazine.com (English).
- ↑ a b c Judith Platz: The black music . In: Axel Schmidt, Klaus Neumann-Braun: Die Welt der Gothics. Scope of dark connotations of transcendence. 2nd Edition. 2008, ISBN 978-3-531-15880-8 , p. 276.
- ↑ Bert Fleißig: The Futurepop Workshop Part 2 - We open up the nonsense . ( Memento from July 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: Sonic Seducer 4/2010.
- ↑ a b Bert Fleißig: The Futurepop Workshop Part 1 - We dance the future . ( Memento of the original from November 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Sonic Seducer , issue 3/2010.
- ↑ Letters to the Editor . In: Entry Musikmagazin , issue 6/96, p. 10, December 1996.
- ↑ Axel Schmidt, Klaus Neumann-Braun: Die Welt der Gothics. Scope of dark connotations of transcendence. 2004, ISBN 3-531-14353-0 , p. 94.
- ^ Rebekka Elisabeth Härtl: Strobelight Records - label report. In: Black -Musikmagazin, issue 36/04, summer 2004, p. 37.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20010721005709fw_/http://www.weiberelectro.de/action.htm
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20010721005709fw_/http://www.weiberelectro.de/was.htm
- ↑ Assemblage 23 - I've never been fond of the 'future pop' moniker ( Memento of the original from February 5, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Side-Line Magazine, March 19, 2009 (English)
